Tesla is gearing up to launch its robotaxi pilot program in Austin, Texas, later this month, but the self-driving vehicles can’t safely navigate city streets. Multiple trials conducted Thursday showed the cars failing to stop in time when young children dart into traffic.

In a demonstration by consumer advocacy group The Dawn Project in East Austin, mannequins simulated children running to a school bus. This reporter witnessed eight trials in which the self-driving Tesla—the same model planned for the Robotaxi program—failed every time, striking the dummies despite having ample time to stop.

The Dawn Project, which ran Thursday’s demonstration in conjunction with progressive political group #ResistAustin, obtained a Tesla Model Y to conduct the road tests on a quiet treelined street in the Mueller section of the city to display their findings firsthand. A full-size school bus was also hired to park on the street to simulate a student pickup.

“We are specifically demonstrating the fact that the software does not understand what a school bus is and does not respond to the stop sign being out and the red lights flashing and will blow straight past it illegally and dangerously,” Arthur Maltin, a spokesman for The Dawn Project said to the New York Sun.”

The New York Sun rode inside the Model Y during one trial, looping the block toward a school bus. The stop sign placards on the bus swung open as the car approached. When a small mannequin was pulled into the road to simulate a child crossing, the Model Y ignored both the stop signs and the “child.” A loud crunch echoed on impact, startling another reporter in the car, who let out an audible gasp.

Mr. Maltin says that the Tesla Model Y lacks vital LIDAR, or light detection and ranging systems, like the ones used in Waymo self-driving taxis, relying only on a camera system placed around the permitter of the vehicle.

“So, if it’s foggy, if it’s rainy if it’s snowing, the cameras obviously have severe limitations in those circumstances, whereas radar, for example, can see through fog or see through snow,” he said to the NY Sun, “and LIDAR is very good at determining the depths and the range of things.”

“They [Tesla] would have fixed these very basic issues such as identifying a school bus or identifying a road closed or do not enter sign if they were serious about this.”

Tesla officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Beyond demonstrations, the Tesla Model Y has injured children after failing to stop in real-world situations.

In 2023, 17-year-old Tillman Mitchell, a student at the Haliwa-Saponi Tribal School at Hollister, North Carolina, was struck by a 2022 Model Y after exiting his bus and crossing the street towards his house, according to local news station11ABC. The incident prompted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to investigate whether the car was in autonomous mode. Mr. Mitchell survived the crash but was treated for severe injuries.

In the same year, nearly 400,000 Tesla vehicles equipped with Full Self-Driving Beta software were recalled after the NHTSA raised concerns of increased crash risk.

“The FSD Beta system may allow the vehicle to act unsafe around intersections, such as traveling straight through an intersection while in a turn-only lane, entering a stop sign-controlled intersection without coming to a complete stop, or proceeding into an intersection during a steady yellow traffic signal without due caution,” the federal agency said in a recall notice at the time.

The Robotaxi program was initially planned to kick off this Thursday with 10-20 vehicles running within the city limits of Austin but was delayed earlier this week at the last minute, with a new tentative start date of June 22. Mr. Musk cited safety issues on social media as the reason for the delay.

“We are being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift,” Musk said in a post on X.

Tesla has also been secretive about its deal with Austin to host the pilot program, asking the city to withhold records to protect their “privacy or property interests.” According to Reuters, Austin officials denied the news agency’s February request for two years of communications between Tesla and the city regarding the program.

Since October 2024, 44 fatalities involving Tesla vehicles with Full Self-Driving mode engaged have been verified by NHTSA investigators.

“Tesla is a massive outlier. Nothing’s even close to it,” Dan O’Dowd, founder of The Dawn Project, said to the New York Sun. “Ninety percent of all the accidents that have occurred with self-driving or partially self-driving cars are Teslas. Waymo has had zero fatalities. They’ve had zero serious injuries. There’s at least 40 fatal accidents with full self-driving.”

The tech consumer advocate claims that the recalls were never enforced, and Tesla never fixed the issues.

“This is so obviously a problem,” Mr. O’Dowd says. “If you can’t recognize what a school bus is, you have no business writing something you call self-driving software. I mean, it it’s simply unacceptable. And we found many other problems as well. Like, it doesn’t understand do not enter signs and one-way signs. Again, critical.””How can you drive safely if you can’t tell if a street is a one-way street or a two-way street?